Lessons from the Garden: Okra Stars

As I wrote about yesterday, my garden is teaching me some parallels about my own life. So what have I garnered in faith lessons from my okra plants?

The okra plants are fabulous when they’re fresh, and so beautiful like little stars when cut across. However, if I wait too long to pick them, they get to a certain size and stop growing, but just start getting very tough and woody inside. Even an extra day or two on the vine makes them inedible.

If I wait too long to do or say something I know I should, my words may come out as hard or wooden to another, or my deeds may seem wooden or contrived, and not tender, loving or genuine. Things may then get stuck in my throat and hard to say, or be perceived wrongly and chewed on too much till they are spit out and not used for good.

I need to be sensitive to not only the right time to pick and eat the okra, but the right time to pick to say the right things to my loved ones and friends. I want to sow good things into their lives, and to produce the right results in our relating together.

Going back to the okra, I’ve figured out that part of the process of the life cycle is the drying, hardening, and falling apart so that its seeds will come out and be released to grow more plants, if left on the vine.

This shows me more about God’s mercy and overall plan. Even though I mess up and wait too long so that the mellow fresh taste and interesting texture of the okra is not there, all is not lost. It appears to be no good, but when it hardens and dies and falls off the vine, the seeds continue to reproduce and bring forth new life. So too may I get more chances, even though they won’t be the same situations, to do the good that God has called me to do.

I ask the Master Gardener to keep me focused on his garden and to help me be timelier in my obedience: to speak or move when the time is right, to develop more instant obedience and eliminate the procrastination that often brings no or negative results in my life. I will begin to see greater harvests more often.

Today I encourage you to examine your garden and have a meeting with the Master Gardener as well, so that your garden of life will be fruitful and multiply – that you may have all the good things God desires you to reap in a bountiful and tasty harvest in your life!